Paint SplashReview

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A rare occasion of a Wii homebrew app actually going legit.

By Lucas M. Thomas

Paint Splash is one of those games that makes you wonder why Nintendo didn't think it up themselves – since it is, basically, a four-player version of the SNES classic Mario Paint. Just like that 1992 hit that turned your Super Nintendo and TV into a virtual artist's studio and let you go wild on the canvas with the old SNES Mouse, Paint Splash likewise makes your Wii into a blank slate that you can brush across with the pointer functionality of your Wii Remote. Or, most interestingly, four Remotes at once.

Paint Splash has an interesting subversive origin, actually, as it got started as a Wii homebrew program called Kidspaint – made by one guy named Uffe Flarup who wanted to have an art interface to use with his own kids. He succeeded, too, as Kidspaint accomplished its intended mission well and gained a lot of traction in the homebrew community – and now it's still a fun way to jump in and mess around with digital paints alongside three other aspiring Van Goghs.

Really, the potential here is wonderful – if you've got the right group of kids or friends to play it with. Nintendo tapped into just a fraction of this idea with PictoChat on the DS, which let you copy the drawing someone else had just done and edit it yourself in some imaginative way – here, there's no delay. I can draw a roaring lion on the screen and my wife can then put him in a purple T-shirt. Then my brother can draw a surfboard underneath him, then my nephew can add a shark – and I can attack their edits with my own erasing efforts at the same time for added hilarity. It's one of those unstructured, unrestrained interfaces that could prove to be a whole lot of fun with the right group and timing.

Paint Splash also goes the extra mile and includes simplified control schemes for younger kids and SD Card support for saving your best creations – put them on SD, bring them over to your computer and share them with the world.

The Verdict

It really is a shame Nintendo didn't jump on this idea itself and give us a Mario Paint sequel with this same multiplayer functionality – but kudos to the Big N for actually recognizing the merit of a game that first appeared as an unlicensed homebrew application and working to bring it out to the full Wii audience as a legitimate WiiWare release.